Safety belt



y 6, 1953 c. E. SANDERS ETAL $3, ,852

SAFETY BELT Filed Sept. '7, 1946 Midas Jalm C-HacMm-zan 5725572: E'SafiaE E Patented May 26, 1953 CharlesE. sanders, Needhia m and John c. Mac

Kinnon'," Wellesley,"Mass., assignors to The B. F.

Goodrich Company, Ne ration of 'New York 1 w York, N. Y., a corpo- This invention relates to a safety belt, and

provide a belt-like article, such as a safety belt,

having a surface substantially impervious to dirt, grease and moisture; to provide the article with a surface which may be readily cleaned ;.f tolengthen the life of the article by reducin fraying, abrasion and deterioration of the materials comprising the belt; to provide a belt having lateral stability Without undue lateral rigidity; to accomplish the foregoing objects without substantially reducing the flexibilityv of the article; and generally to provide an article of neat and pleasing appearance, which can readily be kept in a clean condition. 1 A safety belt such as those commonly used on commercial airlines must possess a number of properties. The belt must be flexible enough to be worn comfortably withoutcutting into the sensitive abdomen of the wearer when the body Weight is suddenly thrown against ithv lit must possess high tensile strength, and the breaking strength must be retained over along period of service. The belt must be resistant to fray-. ing, abrasion and deterioration fromfmoisture, temperature changes or other causes. The sur-' face of the belt must be such that the beltis firmly locked. by means offthe corrugated iristional fastening buckle commonly used without,

offering resistance to disengagement of the buckle when thebelt is unfastened, and without loss'o-f strength from the clamping action of the buckle. The belt also must be light in weight, andde sirably presents a pleasing appearance even after prolonged use. This necessitates the use. of a belt which is easily cleaned, and whichhas a sure. face impervious to dirt, grease and the like. fBe-I cause of the incidence of air-sickness, the. belt must be resistant to body acids, and must be of such a. nature that .it will not retain offensive odors.

The manufacture of safetybelts from rubber possessing a high tensile strength has been considered. Such belts, however, necessitate the use. 1

of; a. highly loaded composition to increase the tensile strength and reduce the elasticity and; this reduces the fiexibilitytoo far forthe=belt to be worn comfortably. Furthermore, such, a belt is heavier than is desirable for use in airplanes where the reduction ofweight is especially portant. The most commonly used safety belts are made of a woven textile material, ,such as oottonwebbing, which is strong, light and fifixibleg ra-claims. 01. were;

This material has the disadvantage common to foralninous material, however, in that dirt, grease, moistureand body acids easily penetrate the webbing and are diflicult toremove. In addition, the ebbing is subject to fraying, abrasion and deterioration from moisture, -mildewing,body acids and other causes. The absorbent material retains offensive odors, which must be removed by lau ndering, and frequent laundering reduces the strength of the belting material.

lighter weight webbing of the requisite tensile strength can be used to reduce the problem of maintenance, but such webbing has insufficient lateralstability. An airplanesafety belt. is designed fer-use as an abdominal belt; andwhen the passenger's weight is thrown against it,. the belt must have suff cient lateral stability to remain substantially ,fiat. Light-weight webbing alone rolls up; into. a. rope-like band under these conditions and exerts a cutting action in a verynarrow region acrossv the abdomen; while a belt of greater lateral stability remains substantially flat, whereby the body weight is distributed over a largerportion of the abdomen. h if Leather belts may be used for lateral stability,

' but belt havingsufiicientlateral stability has un ue lateral rigidity, so that the hard edges of the leather exert as great a cutting action on. the sensitive. abdomen as doesthe light-weight webbing. FPurthennore, a leather belt of sufficient lateral stability is relative inflexible, and the lockingbuckle cannot grip the surface sufliciently well to provide a safety factor against slippage in service. If leather having a rough surface is used," it is difficult to keep it clean and free of offensive odors; in addition, such a belt is attacked by body. acidsin much the same manner as uncovered textile materials are.

- Belts ofa solid material such as leatherhave a further disadvantage- Ifone edge of ,thebelt is cut, the solid material will tear across the belt; much ,more easily than would a.

discontinuous or foraminous material. This does not leaveasufficient margin of safety for use of this-invention comprises a belt-like article havingga flexible foraminous base member. covered.

4l preferred embodiment of I the invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings of imparts suflicient lateral stability without caus- Which: ing undue lateral rigidity. The finished article Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an airplane is comparable in weight to the conventional heavy safety belt constructed in accordance with this webbing belt. The surface layer protects the invention, a portion being broken away for clarity 5 webbing from fraying and abrasion, and also preof illustration; ve n ts milrleiying and -deteriorationof the web- Fig. 2fisfierspectiye viewogthe belt.v inus e hing. 'lllfiesurface is resistantltdi body acids, and Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 3-3 of Fig'. 1. does not absorb or retain offensive odors. The

In the preferred embodiment, as illustrated in continuous surface layer is readily cleaned, and

Fig. 1, the airplane safety belt, comprises a 1Q presents a pleasing appearance at all times, esof complementary belt-like articles which; 1'f, fie ally since the flexible surface layer may be hereafter referred to as the leftmember I and red as desired. The flexible thermoplastic the right member II. Tlrjeo'fi e effdi 'fi at tl f lan excellent gripping surface left member ID has a metal rnfeans, which is not true of a attached thereto. The fastening means 13 IS 'at-' 15 i tirely of rubber or leather of tached by means of a slot 14 in the means through I rength d durability. In addiwhich a portion iii of the lfif'n'iefiibi lfipasse? tie) 1 kiiig Tbi'fckle may be readily released this P 011 the being fo ded b gfigfi without sticking, and the clamping action does member itself and stitched thereto as lridfica d n 'gtfiiiipair the surface cpating. The coating mag enerally by the numeral l6 of Fig. 1. terial penetrates the interstice f of the webbing The iiter tfastefiifigfirieafig f3 i l fi p y com- I s gn-mm e the an sii'r ace 1 ot' t titin dated a sameness-same whea -mam factor in case the edge of the belt is cut. The surface of the article is readily cleaned, and presents a neat and pleasing appearance throughout the life of the article. The belt has lateral stability without undue lateral rigidity, and is comparable in weight to the conventional belt. The surface is not attacked by body acids and does not retain offensive odors. The locking buckle grips the impervious surface in a safely locked condition.

While the invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood that variations and modifications thereof may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A two-strap safety belt, each strap comprising a light-weight elongated flexible web of textile fabric having considerably greater width than thickness, a continuous uninterrupted coating enveloping said web, said coating comprising a flexible thermoplastic vinyl resin, the coating on one face of said web being integrally joined to that on the opposite face thereof through the interstices of said web and around the margins thereof to interlock said coating with said Web, and fastening means for the ends of said straps comprising a friction clamp buckle, the webs of said strap being completely embedded in their coatings whereby the coating provides a smooth, tough, uninterrupted surface for cooperation with said buckle.

2. A two-strap safety belt, each strap comprising a light-weight elongated flexible web of textile fabric having considerably greater Width than thickness, a continuous uninterrupted coating enveloping said Web, said coating comprising flexible plasticized polyvinyl chloride, the coating on one face of said web being integrally joined to that on the opposite face thereof through the interstices of said web and around the margins thereof to interlock said coating with said web, and fastening means for the ends of said straps comprising a friction clamp buckle, the webs of said strap being completely embedded in their coatings whereby the coating provides a smooth, tough, uninterrupted surface for cooperation with said buckle.

CHARLES E. SANDERS. JOHN C. MACKINNON.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,895,222 Johnson Jan. 24, 1933 2,015,103 Dreyfus et al Sept. 24, 1935 2,063,649 Woodruff Dec. 8, 1936 2,148,244 Plotkin Feb. 21, 1939 2,204,859 Hyatt June 18, 1940 2,216,760 Ledrich Sept. 24, 1940 2,394,523 Pancoe Feb. 5, 1946 2,431,745 Flanagan Dec. 2, 1947 2,475,588 Bierman July 12, 1949 2,485,725 Francis Oct. 25, 1949 

